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The Economy

For once, I agree with the Scottish nationalists—perhaps there will be many other such occasions in the future. The hon. Gentleman rightly says that the Prime Minister said that he wanted to debate the economy, yet he will not even send the Chancellor of the Exchequer to debate it today. I know that many hon. Members will raise constituency cases in this debate, but I just want to read a letter that I have received from a constituent of mine, because I think it touches on a wider national issue. The letter states:""Dear Mr Osborne""I am writing concerning an article which was published in The Times…The article was entitled ‘White-collar workers to get special help as jobless hits 2m’…I have recently become unemployed and am keen to undertake some training to extend my skills so this"—" scheme—""would be ideal. Unfortunately, no one at the local JobCentre (including their management team) has been told about either scheme and they were…totally unaware of the article. This lack of information reflects badly on the JobCentre staff which is unfair as, for the most part, they are doing a good job under very difficult circumstances.""